For more
than two years lichen has been sitting in a well closed pail, soaking in water,
waiting on the balcony. I had collected it during my wanderings in hills in
company. I still don't know its name. It is greyish-silver in colour. After any
strong winds it lies in plenty under spruces, and it often grows on fallen
branches rotting on the ground.

Luckily I placed a
sticker on the pail saying it contained about 240 gram of dry lichen, and also
the date. I delayed dyeing with it for a single reason: I feared the smell of
cooking lichen. When I opened the pail there was no special odour. But there
was mould on the surface, a real mushroom. I did not remove it, just tore it to
pieces, poured in more water and set to work. I cooked it on low fire for about
three hours. There was no unpleasant smell in the kitchen during cooking, only an odour of an old forest of spruces. When the cookery cooled down I strained the liquid. This was a
tough task and many a piece remained in it.Nadaljevanje kot po navadi. Oprano in dobro omočeno volno sem dala v hladno kopel, počasi segrevala, tako "kuhala" približno uro in pustila čez noč, da se ohladi. Volna se je obarvala toplo rumeno. Meni na sliki sicer pokaže prej rjavo kot rumeno, ampak glavno, da je volna rumena.Then I proceeded as usual. I placed washed and well wetted wool in the
cold bath, slowly raised the temperature, "cooked" it for about one
hour and allowed it to cool down overnight. The wool acquired a warm yellow
colour. My monitor shows it more brown than yellow, but in real life it is much
more yellow than brown, in this is what really matters.

Another 50-gram skein went in the pot, and came out of
it yellow with a bit of brown. I then discarded the dyebath.

I'd expected more
yellow colour from this quantity of lichen: I assume mould - or mushroom for
that sake - had eaten the colour. It's a shame I hadn't used it earlier.Imela sem še okrog 100 g posušenega lišaja. Namočila sem ga čez noč, kuhala kot zgoraj in od prvega barvanja dobila zelo podobno barvo kot prej. Drugo in tretje barvanje sta dala še vedno lepo rumeno, vsakič malo svetlejšo, a nič rjavo.I had another 100 grams of dried lichen. I let it soak overnight, then
cooked as described above. The first dyeing gave me a colour very similar to
that obtained in the dyeing session described above. The next two dyeings also
gave yellows, a bit paler each time, but with no brown in it.